Environmental News

Found a few interesting pieces in my daily news sites. The first is about controlling nuisance animals. Now, I have an environmental bent (or I wouldn't be reading news on "Environmental Network News") but I think this article misses some big points. Bears that get into garbage are only a step away from getting violent towards humans. Starlings reproduce like mad and are a non-native pest (it would be nice to find a dissipative poison for them, though). As many people as we've got right now, there will be conflict with wild species. And there isn't enough wilderness to relocate them all. So some are going to be killed when they run into conflicts. The answer is not to stop killing problem animals, but to stop expanding into their habitat. All urban boundaries should be fixed, as they are. No expansion. We should be building up, not out. Every time I see a wild patch in Pocatello taken over by bulldozers, I want to scream. We've taken too much already.

The second article is more positive, about sustainable harvests. I try to buy organic where I can, but a lot of the foods I use are not available organic, or are so expensive as to be out of reach. The idea of moderation, sustainability, is brilliant. I hope that this moves forward, and I look forward to seeing "sustainable" on labels near the "organic" sections. :-)